Unite have postponed the next strike ballot to allow cabin crew members to assess the ‘final’ offer from British Airways.

Unite are not necessarily recommending that crew take the offer by postponing the ballot, but feel that it is necessary to give their members time to consider it. Unite Joint General Secretary Tom Woodley said: “As a consequence of the company’s last and final offer the union and its representatives will have no choice but to delay our vote in order to allow our members to consult on the offer.

“The company has made it clear that the offer on the table will be removed if the strike ballot starts on Tuesday. It would therefore be inexplicable if we did not put this offer to our members, and I expect this course of action will be confirmed by our cabin crew representatives when they meet tomorrow.”

The revised offer includes a new top-up payment to guarantee that existing crew will not lose out on route allowances when newly-recruited crew begin flying in the autumn and two years of guaranteed rises in basic salary from February 2011 in addition to annual increment pay increases.

BA have responded to the postponement in a short but optimistic statement on their website: “We welcome today’s statement from the Unite leadership. We believe our offer is fair and reasonable and provides a genuine opportunity to end this dispute.”